Survival
by Jncera
Summary: Roy, Artemis, and Robin, their memories stripped and communication with the Team gone, are trapped in a forest filled with horrific creatures. Someone must die so the other may live...if, that is, there's even a way out. RoyxArtemis. Pre-Usual Suspects.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice

* * *

_**Survival**_

_Dedicated to these Tumblr people/blogs:_  
_**Midnightroulette** for her amazing Roy/Artemis fics_  
_**Fyeahroyandartemis** for being the HQ for all things Roy/Artemis_  
_**Notyoursidekick** and **blondearcher** for bringing the couple to life through their fantastic role-playing_

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**Chapter I**

It's cold.

Artemis shifts herself and in her dreaming haze, she feels a source of continuous warmth to her left. Instinctually, she curls herself towards it and burrows her face into the radiating heat. She's about to drift back into her cave of sleep when she realizes she recognizes the scent enveloping her nose, and with it comes waves of annoyance, and just a tinge of adrenaline that sends her heart jumping. Her eyes snap open, and her waking world is filled with Roy's face—so close she could feel puffs of his breath brushing her eyelashes.

She gives a gasp of surprise and scrambles away, only to feel a sharp stab in her elbow. She frantically looks for the source of pain and discovers she backed herself into a boulder. Confused, she finally lifts her eyes, and realizes with nauseating disorientation she's in some sort of forest. There is a smooth wall of rock in front of her, and her back is at the base of a rocky hill with a yawning cave halfway to the top. All around this small clearing is a border of thick trees reaching towards the gradually darkening sky.

At her foot, Roy begins to stir, and soon he's also sitting and regarding the surroundings with a slack-jawed expression of bewilderment. He turns to Artemis, and without a word, both reach for their radio devices in their ears…only to feel empty air.

Artemis has no recollection of coming to this place. In fact, as she shuts her eyes and strains her mind, she can't even conjure any immediate memories leading to her strange awakening. She could read the frown on Roy's face and understands his thoughts just translated to the same conclusion. The only comforting notion was they were both in full combat gear, with warm jackets, full sheaths of arrows, and their accompanying bows.

"Were we on a mission?" Artemis finally speaks, breaking the deafening silence.

Roy squints—although it's hard to decipher through his domino mask—and answers, "I don't remember _anything_."

Artemis could hear the shortness in his answer. She's about to retaliate with an exasperated comment of her own when they both freeze. There's a frenzied crash in the forest, and suddenly Robin crashes through, his expression frantic.

"_Run!_" he screams at them, before a feral roar from the trees drowns his command out.

Roy and Artemis fly to their feet and tear after him, both simultaneously grabbing an arrow and notching it to their bows.

"What are we running from?" Artemis yells, ducking as branches swing into view.

"No time to explain!" Robin responds. He points at a tree with a trunk as wide as a car and leaps onto the first branch. "Climb!"

As if on cue, there's another deafening roar behind him, and Artemis scrunches her nose as the air is filled with the repulsive smell of rotting flesh. She shoves her arrow back into her sheath and folds her compound bow before propelling herself at the nearest branch. She hears Roy do the same next to her and they both follow Robin, the fear of their unknown pursuer slicing through their veins.

They're halfway up the tree when there is a burst of activity below and suddenly something slams into the trunk. The tree groans, but not even a leaf moves out of place.

"Don't look down!" Robin shouts from above Artemis and Roy. "Just keep climbing!"

But it's too late. Artemis's fingers nearly uncurl from her branch in terror, and beside her, she hears Roy sharply inhale and she knows he's seeing what she's seeing.

It was a creature—there was no other word for it—the size of a horse, and could only be described as a gruesome cross between a lizard and a wolf. It had bristling glossy black fur, a large scaly tail, and long claws that glinted in the evening light. It was standing on its hind legs like a human, and it opened its mouth to reveal multiple rows of jagged red teeth, dripping with thick saliva. However, the most terrifying were its eyes—large black skull-like hallows with a single red glowing dot in the center, yawning and threatening to drag your screaming soul into the depths of hell.

The creature snarls, and the smell of fetid carcasses rushes past them. It rams itself once again against the tree, but the sturdy trunk refuses to bend.

"Keep climbing!"

Robin's voice jolts Artemis and Roy away from their terrified state, and they continue up the tree. They only stop when the branches become too thin to support their collective weight. The creature has stopped throwing itself against the tree, and backs away to focus its dark eyes on the tree. It suddenly throws back its head and howls, a grating noise that contains all the notes of a deep wolf's bay and the screeching of an owl. Artemis feels her hair stand on end when its call is answered by a similar chorus peppered throughout the forest.

Eventually the creature leaves. Artemis isn't sure if her frightened imagination is playing tricks on her, but just before the creature retreats back into the shadows, it locks its eyes on her and curls its lips upwards in a grin. She shudders and turns away to face Robin and Roy.

"S-so what the _hell_ was that?" she whispers, not even attempting to hide the shakiness in her voice.

Robin shakes his head and answers, "No idea. But it's smart…it knew how to evade my birdarangs-"

"Okay, better question," Roy interrupts, "where _are_ we? Where's the rest of the Team?"

Robin brings up a holographic map projected from his gauntlet, and it shows three blinking red dots next to each other—their positions. But everything else is blank—no landmarks, not even a grid. He touches the screen and zooms away, only to reveal a larger expanse of nothingness.

"I don't know."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice

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_**Survival  
**__Chapter II_

* * *

Still alert for the creature's return, Robin, Roy, and Artemis each compare notes in hushed voices. As Roy and Artemis only woke up shortly before meeting Robin, their stories are short. Robin's is uneventful as well, with the exception of being attacked by that strange creature and it chasing him directly to the two archers. However, there is a disturbing wire clamping each account together: the apparent loss of any memories immediately before each of them woke up.

"It's like Bialya all over again," Robin groans.

"At least we know we weren't fighting before this," Roy points out as he slides his full sheath of arrows off his back.

Robin nods. "I had a full set of birdarangs too."

"We need to find a way out," whispers Artemis, somewhat impatiently, "and to the rest of the Team." She looks over at Robin and points up. "Can your acrobatic skills reach the top? And see if you recognize where we are?"

Robin raises an eyebrow at her, and in a flash is agilely swinging to the topmost wiry branches where he perches and scans.

"I see nothing but trees," he calls back in the loudest voice he dares, "and one rocky hill to our right."

Where Roy and I woke up, Artemis thinks to herself as Robin drops down and lands next to her like a cat. She stops biting on the inside of her cheek long enough to ask, "So, what do you think?"

Without Kaldur, the team would always—and naturally—silently divert leadership to Robin. He looks to the dimming skies and quickly makes a decision.

"We stay in this tree until morning."

"But what if the rest of the Team is in trouble?" Artemis blurts out, her voice slightly above the threshold of caution.

Roy shoots her a silencing glance and peers over his shoulder at the ground. "We can't risk it going in the dark," he calmly refutes. "Not with those…_things_ wandering out there."

Artemis begins to narrow her eyes at him when Robin agrees, "Roy's right. And besides, the rest of the Team's smart; they're probably camping out in a tree like us."

Artemis lowers her gaze to the forest floor, and she knows by how she has to blink and shift her point of focus that hiking through the black forest in the moonless night while surrounded by living nightmares would be a death-sentence.

"Okay fine," she finally exhales, and leans her back against the rugged tree trunk.

Robin disappears somewhere to her right, and she sees Roy wedge himself between two branches a little above her.

_Roy…_

Ironically, and somewhat _unfortunately_ in her opinion, the last conscious memory Artemis can dig up before waking in this hell-hole is of that pugnacious archer.

The Team—she feels something yank her heart at the memory of their collective faces—were all relaxing in the living room, clutching the first autumn mugs of hot chocolate and watching with mirth as Wally and Robin argued over what movie to watch. She remembered feeling a weight lean against the back of her couch, inhaling the unmistakable scent of clean laundry and cinnamon, and rolling her head back to glare into the dark blue eyes of none other than Roy Harper—resident kill-joy and bane of her existence.

"You're polluting my oxygen," she snapped at him.

"You're burning my retinas," he countered.

"_Good._"

He was chewing gum—the source of the cinnamon scent—and he quickly leaned down to crack it next to her ear.

Artemis snarled into his laughing face, and her annoyance only increased when he swung over the back of the couch to land in the seat beside her.

Wally and Robin finally decided on choosing a horror film to celebrate the season, and with every flickering shadow and rising bale of the violin, Artemis felt herself sinking more towards Roy. Then, during the movie's highest point of action and terror, his arm somehow found its way around her. With her senses too enthralled by the movie, Artemis remained unnoticing until she safely exhaled into the rolling credits. But by then, Roy had slipped off the couch and disappeared down the hall, leaving only the absence of warmth around her shoulders and torso as any indication of his phantom embrace.

She can't recall what happened after that moment; her next memory panel is of her waking just inches away from Roy's face in this real-life monster movie. She frowns as the present reality melts back into her consciousness, and her vision blurs as she drifts to uneasy and confusing sleep.

* * *

"Artemis!"

She suddenly wakes with the sensation of falling and the yell of her name. Her eyes flash open just as she feels a painful pull in her arm as someone grabs her wrist, stopping her courtship with gravity. Below her, something heavy crashes through the branches and lands on the ground with a resonating thud.

Her sluggish eyelids lift upwards, and she takes in Roy's gritted teeth, the tightening muscles on his arm, and the vice grip of his hand around her wrist. And then finally the panicking image of two cavernous eyes and a row of crimson teeth jolts movement back into her limbs, and Artemis finds a foothold on a branch below.

"Morning ritual of yours?" Roy asks sourly as he pulls her up.

Robin hastily hisses at them to be silent, so Artemis can merely fire a glare at the other archer. But even so, she mouths a "thanks" to him, and receives a half-hearted shrug in response.

Artemis peers through the leaves at her fallen bow, green and glinting against the brown forest floor in the morning light. She holds her breath and strains her ears for any sign of disturbance around them that could signify the return of those haunting creatures—a wayward flutter of leaves brushing past unnatural fur, a sharp snap of a twig under blood-caked claws…Slowly she inhales, searching the air for the scent of corpses…

But instead, all she can focus on is the stinging scratchiness of her throat and the nauseating hunger squeezing her stomach. She's beginning to feel dizzy, and definitely not from the height of the tree. When was the last time she had water or food?

She looks over at Robin, and he seems to read her thoughts even without M'gann's telepathic link.

"We're sitting ducks here," he quietly comments. "We need to move. Find water, food."

"If Kaldur's here, water's the first thing he'd head for," Roy adds.

Artemis didn't want to include the possibility of them also running into one of those monsters at the water source; she knows it's a shared residual thought, but also a shared residual risk they are willing to take. Death with a fight was more suitable than death by desiccation.

Robin easily scales down the branches and lands on the forest floor with barely a sound, with Artemis and Roy following with less grace. They pause once more, turning their heads for the slightest indication of disturbance, and begin walking in the opposite direction of where the creature chased them from. Artemis snatches her bow from the ground with a flutter of dead leaves and holds it ready at her side, her eyes searching for but dreading the piercing red pinprick inside an endless black hole.

The trio is lucky. They come across a shallow rocky stream almost immediately, and in the vicinity, Roy and Artemis are able to shoot and kill three rabbits. They risk building a fire, with the optimism of using the smoke to draw out fellow comrades instead of feral creatures. Quickly, the food—gamey and surprisingly tender—rejuvenates their spirits and minds.

"So what now?" Artemis asks as she throws away the stick she used for her impromptu rabbit-kabob. It lands in the stream and unintentionally close to Roy, splashing him as he fills a flask with water.

Roy emits an exasperated growl but withholds any caustic remarks. He closes the flask and tosses it at her, and Artemis instantly raises her hand and catches it with precision.

"Our best bet is to keep going," Robin answers, studying the compass on his gauntlet. "Follow the stream, and keep an eye out."

They quickly gather their things, and debate whether to cover their small cooking fire. In the end, they leave it smoldering as a sign for their missing Team members.

Low gray clouds start melting together overhead as the three wordlessly walk along the stream bank. Robin leads with his compass, followed by Artemis and Roy in the rear, bows taut and arrows notched. Artemis peers through shady trees in a world covered with a silver misty sheen, and the surrounding trees are so thick; so _wild_ in the imagination. Every flutter of a bird's wing and light tumble of an acorn brings images of leering red fangs and instant adrenaline.

The three continue walking against the flow of the stream for hours, which curiously remains uncurving until it pools into a round glassy pond like the end of an exclamation mark. They travel past it, remaining on their straight course, when suddenly-

"That's impossible!"

Robin's sudden sputter of incredulity twists both Roy and Artemis's aim to the front, until they realize they are merely aiming at a wall of rock—a crushingly familiar wall of rock.

"Impossible!" Robin exclaims again, tapping his compass. "We've been heading west this entire time!"

Artemis lowers her bow and allows her eyes to study their surroundings, dropping from the wall to the small clearing where she and Roy woke up, to the rising rocky hill behind them with the gaping cave. Did they really just walk in a complete circle?

Robin turns towards her, eyes trained on the compass, and then rotates in a circle back around. He looks up at the clouds, hoping to pinpoint the location of the sun through the dense gray blanket, when a light rain drifts down.

Artemis's gaze returns to the wall of rock rising in front of them, and for a few seconds is confused as to why she can't tear her eyes away from the flat stone. And then with an inward gasp, she sees it: the rock changing color where the water touches it, and lines and curves appear in dim silver as a pair of invisible hands paints through the droplets.

_The bird that falls when its wings are clipped,  
The goddess who shoots an arrow so swift._

The three stand in silence as the rain and words wash over them.

"Where's the rest?" Artemis finally whispers.

Robin raises his holographic computer to record the strange lines when he suddenly pauses, and walks forward to touch the rock surface.

"Guys," he exhales excitedly, "we might have just found our way out." He raises the cerulean screen on his arm to them where a golden dot in the center is pulsing waves of gold. "I'm detecting strong levels of zeta-radiation from inside this wall."

And slowly Roy voices their collective conclusion, "_A zeta-tube._"

"Right where we woke up," Artemis adds, almost wanting to kick herself for not noticing the connection sooner. "Must be how we got here!"

She turns back to Robin, but discovers nothing but air in his wake. Moments later, he returns by Roy's side, and shakes his head once.

"But it's not a cave," he informs them; "it's solid rock."

"Then we break through it." Roy's firm voice mingles with the sound of his bow string tightening, an explosive arrow quivering and ready.

"Wait!" Artemis reaches forward and grabs his arm. "The noise from the explosion." She pauses. "We'd be giving away our location." _To those creatures._

Roy turns to her, but doesn't lower his bow.

"What other choice do we have?" he questions, dropping his voice. "We have to make this count."

"Roy's right," Robin interjects. "We'll take our chances."

Artemis gazes at the two boys, and gradually lets her hand fall.

"Make it count then," she echoes Roy.

She steps back with the other two, putting distance between the source and impact of the anticipated explosion. Roy aims for the center of the wall, and just as he lets the arrow fly, Artemis is suddenly assaulted with the strange gut feeling they were making a terrible decision.

The blast shakes the entire ground, and Artemis twists her face away from the heat. The roar is still ringing in her ears as she waves and coughs the smoke away. Her heart pounds in eagerness of seeing the familiar passage home back to safety, and she takes one step forward into the clearing debris-

-and two steps back.

Roy's explosive arrow—powerful enough to collapse the structures of skyscrapers—procured not even a single crack or dent on the smooth stone, still glinting from the rain and the poem, which now only seems to goad them.

She hears two gasps from her sides, but before any of them could verbalize their disbelief, they all freeze.

Familiarly bone-chilling howls and shrieks suddenly resonate through the trees, along with the reek of death and decay.

Robin turns to the other two with wide eyes under his mask, and yells the only command they need: "_Run!"_

Instantly they're dashing through the forest, crashing through sharp branches that leave stinging crimson lines on their cheeks and hands. The air grows more pungent with fetid flesh and thudding claws, and the surrounding leaves shake and mingle with streaks of black. Artemis catches a gleam of red and reaches behind her for an arrow. She's about to let it fly when suddenly a creature bursts forth in front of her and tackles Roy to the ground, initiating a barrage as the entire pack explodes through the underbrush.

And suddenly the air is filled with screaming arrows and birdarangs, shouts and shrieks, and nauseating ripples of rotting flesh. Artemis fires an arrow at the creature that tackled Roy, only to be knocked to the ground by the shoulder of another. She slams her bow into its face and it pauses with a cry, giving her enough time to roll away and shoot a net that traps her assailant. As that monster falls over in a tangle, another leaps over it towards her, its teeth dripping and snarling with blood. Suddenly its head twists to the side and it crashes past her, with half a birdarang protruding from its skull.

Artemis looks up with gratitude at Robin, when suddenly a scream rises in her throat as she watches a claw drill into his back and rip through his chest.

The birdarang slipping from his hand and falling to the crushed leaves below…

A trickle of red trailing past his lips…

His head, slowly turning down to watch as the claw is torn out, and another one shreds through his shoulder…

Artemis is yelling Robin's name over and over now. She fights and dodges her way through the monsters, swinging her compound bow and splattering blood into the trees, hardly noticing the pair of strong arms wrapping around her and pulling her away. The creatures are beginning to retreat, satisfied with their fresh kill, but Artemis can't tear her eyes away from Robin. His pale lips move, and he issues his last command.

"_Go…_"

She feels Roy attach a cord to her waist, and hears him fire an arrow into a nearby tree. The rope around her waist tightens, and she's yanked into the air with him.

Then they watch as the creatures drag away Robin's lifeless body, his torso ripped to bloody shreds, leaving a dark trail of blood behind him as he disappears into the darkness.

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**A/N:** ... I apologize? ;_;


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice._

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_**Survival**_**  
**_Chapter III_

* * *

Shock.

Terror.

Disbelief.

_No. _

_Robin! _Artemis hears herself scream in her head what she cannot bring her voice to. She feels herself pitch forward, hand outstretched towards his disappearing body, but a force holds her back. Confused, she looks down, and becomes aware of someone's arm around her.

_No no no_…she needs to get down from this tree; she needs to go help Robin. She needs to find him, and watch him wake as she's about to put her hands on his chest. She needs to hear those words again: "Figured my only shot was to surrender—pretend to drown before I actually did. Blacked out though." He's going to get traught, because he isn't-_couldn't_-be dead.

Artemis struggles against the weight around her, which only causes the wrapped arm to tighten, and haul her away from the edge of the thick branch. She tenses and slams her hand down against the bark, but instantly pulls away with a sharp yelp. The sight of blood pouring from a jagged splinter in her palm finally allows her to register the reality of her situation, and she slumps into Roy's hold with a ragged sigh.

"We need to save him," she chokes into the passing wind. She barely senses Roy turn her palm towards him. "Maybe he's not—" she couldn't bring herself to utter out loud that word; it sounded too final and finite, and foreign—something she should _not_ be saying.

A shot of searing pain tears through her hand but she doesn't even flinch. Only when she feels the repeated pressure of Roy wrapping a roll of torn cloth around her wound does she turn her faraway gaze to focus on the blooming rose blossom in her palm.

"He's gone, Artemis."

Artemis never hated anything that came from Roy's mouth more than those words. She jerks her torso around to glare into the whites of his domino mask, challenging him.

"You know it too," he continues gravely. "And you know if we go after him, all three of us would die."

"It's what he would do for any of us!" Artemis swiftly counters, her temper boiling.

Roy shakes his head and squints into the quickly dimming sky.

"At least one of us needs to survive to find the rest of the Team and return home." He pauses and looks back at Artemis. "At least one of us needs to report what happened with Robin."

"But if there's a chance to save him…" A stray gust carries away Artemis's next few words, because as much as she hates to admit it, Roy speaks the bitter truth.

Robin is gone.

When she finally admits the phrase to herself, she feels an entire world inside her collapse—a world of dissected English words, chirpy laughter, impish grins, winks behind dark sunglasses…

Suddenly, she feels arms wrap around her from behind, and she jumps at the touch. She tilts her head back quizzically.

"What are you doing?" she practically hisses.

In response, Roy tears off his mask, revealing deep blue eyes with an even deeper hollowness in them, along with her answer: _Something we both need._

And that's when the tears come for Artemis. She immediately squeezes her eyes shut and holds her breath, but the burning forces everything out eventually, and soon she's shamelessly shuddering against Roy's chest.

She has nightmares of Robin that night—his bloody hands reaching out and his sunken eyes begging for her help, his flittering laugh morphing into muted screams, the rip of the creature's claw through his chest replaying in the background like some perverse bass beat…

She wakes when it becomes impossible for her to breathe, and in her post-dreaming state, nearly lurches from the tree again. But Roy's arms act like a harness, securing her; catching her.

Twenty-four hours ago, Roy and Artemis were descending a similar tree with their companion, Robin. Twenty-four hours ago, the three were hiking through the forest and eating brunch together—alert, but comforted by each other's company. Twenty-four hours ago, they had their leader; comrade; friend.

And then twenty-four hours later, Roy and Artemis repeat the same routine, but with silent emptiness as each refuses to speak or meet each other's eyes, because if they do, the reality of their mortality bears down like a suffocating phantom.

They still desperately search for signs of Robin, but the night of rain has washed away all traces and trails leading from their previous battleground. Artemis picks up a birdarang half buried in mud and stares at the red glinting surface, before the flood of memories causes her to throw the weapon deep within the forest.

By early evening, they find themselves facing the flat wall of rock again—their only escape from the surrounding fish-bowl hell. The poem sneers mockingly back at them, but with one strange difference: the surface has broken apart over the entire first line, revealing a gaping grin into darkness.

Roy kicks up a pebble and throws it into the small cavern, and a resonating clang echoes back—one that sounds unmistakably like metal. He raises an eyebrow at Artemis, and they both walk forward until they finally make out the faintest golden glow weaving past the blackness-their impossible way home, and the indirect cause of a friend's death.

Roy punches the wall in sheer frustration and turns away. The air suddenly develops a chill and a drop of icy rain falls on his knuckles.

"We better find shelter," he mutters—his first spoken words in hours. "Somewhere safe from the rain."

Artemis focuses her eyes on the cave halfway up the small rocky hill opposite the wall and nods at it.

"Think that's safe?" she asks.

"Only one way to find out," Roy answers with a shrug, and begins hiking carefully through the rocks. He picks through a safe path, and Artemis follows, an arrow drawn and all her senses strained with adrenaline. There could be anything in that yawning cave—including one of those creatures.

They first purposely past the cave and continue to the apex of the hill, and observe a sheer drop on the other side to the ground fifty feet below. Satisfied, they turn back and finally arrive at the cave entrance. Although it's about half the size of a door-way—considerably too small to fit the nightmarish monsters—and the air is placid and void of decay, the two still approach with caution. Roy notches an arrow, and with a steely nod from Artemis, lets it fly into the darkness. He quickly pulls another from his sheath and draws it back, and they wait in quivering anticipation. But his warning shot is only met with silence and the hastening rain. Artemis lowers her bow, and Roy reaches into his pocket for a miniature flashlight. He shines it into the cave, and only blank rocks and gravel stare stoically back.

"Well then," he states, before crawling inside. He sits against the back wall and straightens his legs in front of him. The cave is definitely roomy enough for two.

Artemis turns to survey the darkening forest one last time, her thoughts haunted by the notion of Robin's body _somewhere_ within the gray trees, the bitter rain soaking the rags of his uniform and washing away the blood on his bones.

She shivers—not from the seeping cold of the weather—and drops down to enter the cave.

This time Artemis doesn't flinch when Roy folds his arms around her. Their shared body heat is a necessity in the persistent chill, but it also brings a vestige of comfort Artemis never knew existed between the two.

"At least this time you didn't rip off an article of clothing," she muses weakly.

Roy responds with faint breathy laugh, "Would you like me to?"

"Like you would. You'd freeze," she points out, crushing the joke.

"Not if I have you," Roy quickly replies, perhaps without thinking.

There's a very pregnant pause as Artemis tenses, and Roy senses this with a hitch in his breath.

"Stop that," Artemis finally whispers.

"Stop what?"

"Being so…" her voice falters as she searches for the word, "nice."

"I've _always_ been nice to you," Roy replies, his tone ambiguous.

Artemis takes his words as sarcasm and snorts.

"Right. And I'm always been such a lady to you."

"But you are."

She frowns, and turns her face so she could see him gazing down at her.

"What?"

"I don't know why you don't see it," Roy begins steadily, "but you have a strange effect on people—especially guys."

Artemis almost wanted to laugh, but just then a bitter breeze blows into the cave and stings her cheeks.

"Yeah, I cause them to run away," she throws into the cold wind.

Roy feels the chill too, and pulls Artemis closer until she's pressed against his shoulder and chest.

"Only for them to come back," he responds in a throaty murmur, his words almost carried away by the rain outside.

Another silent spell collapses on them, with Artemis finally breaking it with a solemn comment: "If only Robin would come back then." She closes her eyes.

Roy's sideways gaze on the top of Artemis's head turns pensive, and he slowly and gingerly rests his cheek against her hair.

"Go to sleep," he tells her. "I'll take the first watch."

Artemis begins to protest, but her words soon drag away as the warmth of Roy's arms around her draws her eyelids into fog.

It's early morning before Roy nudges her awake, and she opens her eyes to see the sky outside the cave tinted pale gold. Her breath swirls past her in silver puffs, but at least the rain has stopped.

"Did you know you were drooling all over me?" Roy's voice, though hazy with exhaustion, is tinted with mirth. Artemis turns and shoots him a deadpan eyebrow raise.

"Don't flatter yourself," she quips.

But Roy's eyes have already closed, and his only response is a drawn out sigh.

Artemis fingers her bow and arrows, but her eyes linger on Roy—on the slight curl of his light brown eyelashes, the light stubble dusting his chin and upper lip and jawline, the few stray strands of auburn hair that have managed to form an endearing wave above one eyebrow. She listens to his methodic breathing, wraps herself in his emanating body heat, and muses over the juxtaposition of how peaceful Roy is right now, compared to the caustic porcupine of his waking state.

But then she remembers the events of last night, and the night before, and decides maybe "caustic" isn't the best word.

Her gaze still remains on his closed eyelids, and her thoughts settle like dust around imaginations of what his childhood was like; if his cause for picking up the bow and arrow were any different than hers; if the past even really matters if their present of banter and fire and determination are so similar.

_Similar. _

Artemis huffs and finally turns away.

The rain and clouds of the previous night have all evanesced by late morning, and Roy finally rustles from his sleep.

"Your growling stomach is the _best_ alarm clock," he grumbles.

"And your morning breath is the _best_ air freshener," Artemis ripostes, moving away and towards the cave entrance. The brush of chilled air seeping into the space where Roy's arms were instantly reminds her of the scary-movie night. Thankfully, her thoughts are distracted as the cave fills with a churning growl, and she turns to Roy's sheepish grin.

They head out into a brilliantly sunny and warm day. The forest is alive with colors that jingle and jangle against their eyes in sharp contrast to the environment inside their hearts. A lone butterfly flits by and momentarily convinces Artemis happy endings might actually exist, when suddenly there is a strident snap of metal crunching on bone, and Roy releases a loud shout of pain and collapses to the ground.

"_Roy!_" Artemis drops down next to him, and immediately sees his right boot, torn and twisted, with dark rivulets of blood dripping into the rusting teeth of a bear trap.

* * *

**A/N:** Only 2 more chapters left! And yes, I did use _The Hunger Games _as inspiration for this fic! Kudos for those who made the connection. That's also the reason why the writing style is slightly different than my usual—I've never written in present-tense before, and with far more terse descriptions.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.

* * *

_**Survival**__  
Chapter IV_

* * *

With only adrenaline controlling her mind, Artemis flings her bow onto the fallen leaves, and takes hold of the iron jaws of the bear-trap with her hands. She slips her fingers between the rusted teeth and ignores the biting pain as she slams all her strength into prying them apart.

"_Come on!_" she grunts. Roy gives a muffled yell through gritted teeth, and joins her with his own hands.

With every agonized passing nanosecond, Artemis could practically feel the hot and fetid breath of the monsters in the forest breathing down her neck. Slowly, excruciatingly inch by inch, the bear trap—now darkening to an unnatural dark red with Roy's blood—finally gives its final creak of resistance and flings open.

Roy gasps, and falls over to the side, shaking and panting. Artemis could see the blood oozing from the dark puncture wounds in his boots, forming a glossy film of liquid that dyes the black of his outfit to midnight. Even without a penetrating assessment, it is obvious the bones in his lower leg are completely shattered.

Suddenly, a shrill howl pierces through the sunlit forest. Birds explode into the sky and a shard of ice slices through Roy and Artemis's hearts. The panic in their eyes finds each other, and Artemis immediately snatches her bow and slips an arm underneath Roy's shoulders and pulls. He staggers, stumbles, and hisses as his injury lacerates every nerve-ending in his leg. Blood trickles from the corner of his mouth from how hard he's biting down on his tongue, but with the help of Artemis, he finally stands with the raw fear of death propelling every tortuous move forward.

Artemis slips her bow over her shoulder and uses both hands to grip onto Roy. Her fingers continue to slide, and it's not until she sees the streaks of blood on his uniform does she realize her hands are bleeding from the bear-trap. A blast of wind then shakes through the trees, carrying the foreboding smell of retching flesh.

"We have to go!" Artemis whispers urgently.

Roy swallows the taste of warm iron in his mouth and holds his breath as he gingerly puts his injured foot down. As soon as he inched his weight on it, flames of searing pain cause his knees to buckle. He shoots a hand out to catch his fall, and his fingers dig frustratingly into the sodden ground.

A raven darts overheard, cawing strident warnings as it passes. Artemis's eyes follow it, and the vivid flashback of Robin dragged away as a bleeding corpse sends tremors through her veins. She pulls Roy until he sways upright again, and yells in her mind what she can't speak through her lips.

_Move, Roy! I can't let you die! _

She supports him, and this time when he edges his maimed foot to the ground, his knees stay strong.

_You can't leave me too!_

With a stabbing intake of air, he takes a hobbling step.

_You can't leave me alone._

Artemis pushes upwards against his weight, and together, they take another step, and then another. Roy limps along, streaking the decaying leaves on the forest floor with red. They can see the rocky hill through the trees, but to Artemis it seems to be growing further and further away as the primal fear of prey versus predator digs deeper and deeper.

The air is suddenly stifling. Time is screaming at them. Every instinct ringing in Artemis's ears is urging her to _run run run, _but she won't abandon Roy.

A roar blasts through the air—closer, hotter. But they're drawing nearer to the clearing; to the hill; to sanctuary. Artemis's hands begin to slip again, but this time from the perspiration covering her palms. Roy's breaths come in gruff hisses that gradually crescendo with each painful step. His bleeding foot hits a hidden log, and he lurches forward. Artemis catches him, and hastily pulls him up. The hill is only a few feet away. They're almost there. They reach the rocks at the base of the hill. They can make it. They—

There's a rumble of breaking branches behind them, followed by a shrieking ghoulish roar. Roy drops to the ground, and Artemis immediately whips around and snatches an arrow from her quiver. The creature leaps, mouth wide and claws glinting, but the archer is faster. Her arrow slices through the air and pierces straight into the creature's open mouth, lodging its razor point inside its head. Immediately, the monster's eyes dim and Artemis jumps out of the way as it crumbles to the ground, slack-jawed in a growing pool of black blood.

Artemis notches another arrow to her bow and aims it at the forest, but only an eerie silence drifts forth. She's afraid to drop her weapon; she's learning this is a place where a lowered guard could mean injury; a blind spot—death. She stands still, every nerve shivering as she squints into the leafy shadows, until a sudden tumble of pebbles next to her feet pushes her from her trance of paranoia. She looks over, and instantly lowers her bow when she sees Roy trying to push himself over the rocks at the base of the hill. Getting him to safety to stop the bleeding is priority alpha.

Climbing the hill is surprisingly easier—either from the lack of oppression in the surrounding air, or Roy's ability to use his hands to drag himself over the rocks. Artemis stays behind him, ready to stop a slip or unleash another defensive attack against any more creatures. But the winds only bring breezes of pine and wet soil, and soon Artemis begins to switch her focus from the hidden horrors behind her to the tiny rivulets of blood Roy leaves on the gray rocks. She raises her eyes to the struggling figure of Roy pulling himself through the rocks with his hands—hands that are also torn from the bear-trap—and pushing with his uninjured leg.

And that's when she forgets all the resentment she held against him in the past. The facades of anger and arrogance she had associated him with suddenly evanesce, and she sees before her a young man—a human—fighting for survival—not only in this demonic forest, but also back home and in general reality. She sees within him humanity; she sees _herself_.

They finally reach the cave with a duet of relieved sighs, and Roy collapses onto his back, breathing fast and grimacing. He raises his hands to wipe his face, but stops when he notices the caked mud and blood, and groans instead.

Artemis immediately starts pulling off the boot of Roy's bleeding leg. He doesn't protest, and watches quietly as a coagulated waterfall of burgundy tumbles out of the shoe. Artemis's facial expression remains unchanged, and she slowly rolls up the torn pant-leg. Gaping gashes stare back like the hollow red eyes of the creatures haunting the forest, and everything is smeared with Roy's blood and pieces of torn skin and flesh. She suppresses a sharp intake of air, and tries her best to hide the feelings of loss struggling to make itself known all over her face. Thankfully the sun has already begun its descent into the mountaintops, and darkness washes away her tell-tale frown.

She reaches inside one of the pouches on her belt and pulls out a white roll of gauze. They have no water, so she settles for wrapping Roy's wounds without any means of cleaning them, and hopes his immune system is as stubborn as its host. She knows her efforts could only slow the bleeding and nothing more, but "more" is something she could not offer.

"And the secrets of those mysterious pouches are finally revealed!"

Artemis jerks her head towards Roy at the sound of his voice. His words crack like tree-bark, and he stares at her with half-open eyes. Artemis punctuates the air with a single light laugh and returns to circling his leg with gauze.

"I'm glad you still have a sense of humor," she responds.

Roy almost grins.

"Don't push it."

Artemis doesn't reply, but allows the rhythmic unrolling of the gauze to hypnotize her; to calm her breathing until the butterfly wings of red slowly begin to fade away in clouds of white. Roy watches her, and takes in the gradual smoothing of her face until it's a picture of calm. He realizes he has never seen her like that—so concentrated; so far away; so…beautiful.

"I'm useless now," he suddenly mumbles as she finishes wrapping the last strip of cotton.

Artemis turns to regard him—sitting with a broken expression and far different than the red and fire-breathing archer she had sought to understand—and her eyes soften.

"Don't say that," she whispers in response.

"We're trapped," he continues as if he doesn't hear her. "There's no way out."

Artemis doesn't respond, and instead shifts her gaze past the cave entrance and to the valley below. Her eyes linger momentarily on the carcass of the creature as it lay in a tangled mass of black limbs and glowing like a phantom in the twilight air. She quickly looks away and focuses on the wall of rock that Robin had promised was to be their salvation.

"The wall down there." Artemis nods at it, and turns back to Roy. "There's a zeta-tube. Robin—"

"Yeah, I know what Robin said," Roy replies bitterly, "but that wall _won't_ break. My arrows can take down buildings, but it didn't even _chip_ the stone."

"_Something_ broke it," Artemis argues, "which means we can too."

"And attract more of those creatures?"

After he speaks, Roy's pale lips set into a thin line, and his jaw tightens. Artemis feels the veracity in his question, and turns back to the outside world again. She looks past the wall and towards the hazy horizon of dark treetops which stretch into a seemingly infinite pool of blackness. _What kind of never-ending hell was this?_

She shakes the brief pull of home-sickness, and squints back at the flat stone with its cryptic and taunting poem. And that's when she notices it. Either her eyes were playing tricks on her, or…

"Is it just me," she quickly whispers to Roy, "or do you notice something different with the wall?"

She hears the sound of sand against rocks behind her as Roy shifts.

"It's like someone struck out that second line," he finally replies.

"It wasn't there this morning," Artemis reflects out loud.

"Maybe the wall is falling apart by itself," Roy grumbles as he sinks back into his comfortable position. "Maybe we just need more time."

Artemis turns around and regards the man before her, his face ashen, his gaze far-away, and the evil surrounding his foot, drawing away his life drop by drop.

_But what if they didn't have more time…_

She moves away from the entrance and settles closer to Roy. She tilts her head back and hits the cave wall with a soft thump. It didn't hurt, and it's only a fraction of the force she wants to use due to her frustration. She waits for the snarky comment she's sure Roy's going to throw at her ("Maybe you should do that again, but harder"), but only silence echoes between them. She drops her gaze from the ceiling and slowly faces Roy. His eyes are closed, and his expression is almost serene, except for the tension in his muscles and shaking white knuckles of his clenched fists. Artemis knows he's fighting the pain, with nothing to mask or distract him from the gnawing knives and burning fire in his leg. She sighs, and attempts to reach through his barrier of agony with the first conversation starter she could think of.

"You know my first impression of you was utter loathing?"

Roy simply snorts in response. Artemis takes it as a translation of mutuality.

"But it was because I envied you."

Roy opens his eyes and shifts his gaze to her.

"Yeah…" She forces an airy laugh and hugs her knees to her chest. "Ridiculous, right?" She breaks away from Roy's steady stare and continues. "I envied your relationship with Green Arrow. I envied how he was a mentor rather than..." Her voices trails and she waves the rest of the sentence away with a few flicks of her fingers. "You grew up in a land of golden morals and righteousness. You knew you were going to be a hero from day one; you had your life perfectly planned out from day one-" Her tone then changed, and the cloud over her eyes grew sharp. "-whereas I had to crawl through the _mud_ and _filth_ of _damaged hearts_ and _broken spirits_ to break free into a world I thought only existed in my _dreams_."

Artemis glares at the bandages around Roy's foot and a fog of silence settles inside the cave. A moment passes, and then she feels a soft and warm pressure on her back. She feels it wrap around her waist, and her shoulders begin to gradually droop until her entire body follows and her head finds Roy's shoulder. His arm wraps around her, and the cold seems to magically disappear from the world.

"I never knew my mother."

Roy's voice startles Artemis. The self-pitying and brittle tone is replaced with a deep cello hum—velvet and sure.

"And my father died when I was young," he continues. "I was raised by Brave Bow, but then he died too."

Artemis turns her head upwards. Even from the dim blue glow of the weak moonlight drifting into the cave, she could discern the unfocused glaze in Roy's eyes as they stared back. It was the same expression she knows she herself wears when she thinks of her "family".

"I didn't grow up in a land of golden morals and righteousness; I grew up surrounded by death and unanswered questions. So in a way, I envied _you_."

Artemis furrowed her eyebrows incredulously, and to her vexation, Roy's lips twitches upwards.

"You look like a hedgehog when you frown," he teases her.

"A _hedgehog_?" Artemis repeats with a deadpan glare.

Roy ignores her, and resumes before she could bring to life the threats dancing in her eyes.

"You also intimidated me."

Artemis scoffs loudly.

"Actually, make that present tense," Roy corrects himself. "You still do."

"Okay, I know you injured your foot, but did a bear-trap get your brain too?"

"Do you know how many women have the guts to walk up to me while I'm Red Arrow, and correct me with only a breath between us? All the while staring daggers into my eyes? Only two—Dinah, and you. Dinah, because she's a mother-figure to me, and you, because-" he pauses to search through his words, and Artemis remains quiet in curious anticipation "—because you had to crawl through a life of mud and filth and broken spirits, and it made you the strong and independent person you are today. Many would have let the mud and filth consume them until they became mud themselves—like the criminals we fight. But you…you refused to fall." And then he almost smiles again. "You took that mud and built a city with it."

Artemis doesn't respond. She doesn't trust herself to open her mouth, because she fears if she speaks, her voice will crack and the tears will break through her disguise of stoicism. Never in her life has she heard kinder and more encouraging words. She bites her lips and turns to burrow her face into Roy's neck. She inhales a shaky breath, and among the damp swirls of their battle for survival, she could still smell the lingering scent of cinnamon.

Though Artemis would never admit it, the scent is comforting, like the unknowing draping of an arm to hold her against the horrors of both fantasy and reality. She closes her eyes, and suddenly feels weak from the combination of hunger and all the harrowing horrors of the past few days, and soon the warmth draws her to the first dreamless sleep in days.

* * *

**A/N**: My apologies for taking so long! I think the next chapter _may_ be the last one, but it depends on whether I want another cliffhanger or not hehe.

Thank you for reading, and for all the reviews! I very much appreciate each and every single one of them :)


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice_

* * *

_**Survival**__  
Chapter V_

* * *

Roy's strength continues to deteriorate throughout the night. When Artemis rouses the next morning, she sees his face is ashen, and there is a constant tremor in his hands.

He waves away her concern.

"I'll be fine," he hisses through tightened muscles.

Artemis eyes him carefully. He needs water; both of them do. She silently gathers her weapons and scans the surrounding forest through the cave entrance. Quiet treetops stare blankly back. After one last glance at Roy, she vigilantly treks down the hill, keeping her movements over the slippery rocks as mute as possible.

When she finally reaches the bottom, her head swivels towards the path that leads to the creek, but her eyes dart to the inscription on the stone wall. The first line had completely disappeared into an abyss, but she can still see the shimmering words in her head.

_The bird that falls when its wings are clipped…_

An image of Robin, broken, bloody, and dead, flashes painfully across her yes. She feels something acidic burn into the back of her throat, and swallows the picture away.

…_The goddess who shoots an arrow so swift._

She grabs the strap of her quiver and turns her head to see the last remaining three groups of fletchings. That was the only problem of being an archer: no matter how skilled, you would always inevitably run out of arrows.

Filling with frustration and an ugly sting of despair, she sharply swings the quiver back and grips her bow tighter. Pushing away her darker thoughts, she returns to her original quest for nourishment. As a teammate and friend once said, "Get traught, or get dead."

* * *

Roy watches Artemis pause at the wall, and then continue on with square shoulders. He watches her until he can no longer see the glint of her hair through the dark forest, and once her image disappears, the pain in his leg simultaneously reappears. He inhales sharply, and slumps back into the cave wall.

He hates it. He hates the pain, he hates the situation they're in, he hates how _useless_—even in his mind he spits the word-he's become, but above all else, he hates leaving Artemis to go into the forest alone, all because he didn't watch where he put his stupid foot.

He had wanted to argue with her before she left, but he knew it would have just been precious energy wasted. Artemis's determination is the sun to her sky; the flashlight in her cave—it's what enables her to move forward and lights her purpose. He couldn't have argued against that; he couldn't have argued against something that was so much a part of her.

So instead of keeping her safe by his side, he had watched her leave.

Roy clenches his jaw against a spasm of pain, and squeezes his eyes shut. He counts to ten…and then exhales.

_She'll be fine_, he reminds himself, _she's armed and dangerous_. He chuckles silently at the cliché, and closes his eyes.

Minutes pass, and his initial burst of calm dissipates. The walk to and back from the river isn't lengthy. His eyes snap open and he strains his ears for any noise—hoping to hear footsteps in lieu of roars and screams.

A chilling silence drifts into the cave, followed suddenly by a deep clunk of rock against rock.

"Artemis?" he breathes with trepidation.

And then the smell fills his nose and stings down every branch of his quivering bronchi.

* * *

Artemis pads across the forest floor, silent and wary as a doe. One arrow is notched in her bow, ready to kill at her finger's command. She takes in the lines that traveled down each leaf, the curves and crevices swirling around the black trunks of trees, and every outline of the bushes around her. She checks the humid breeze ebbing across her face, the length of her shadow, and the eerie serenity of the morning forest.

She stops walking and lowers her bow. She doesn't hear a single noise—not the rustling of leaves, or the chirping of birds, and not even the rippling of the rushing creek. She quickly shakes her head, hating the muffled silence against her ears; ears that were once straining against, but now yearning for, any sound at all.

She begins cutting a path towards the landmarks that leads to the creek. She still treads softly, even with the stifling ache in her ear-drums, and continuously reminds herself she would be able to at least hear the gurgling waters soon.

Her foot suddenly flips over a loose pebble, and the clank it makes is almost deafening. She looks down, and it takes her almost a full minute to comprehend what she was standing on. It was a riverbed—dried to the bone.

Tiny pin-pricks of sweat begin forming on the back of her neck. She twists wildly around, confused. _The creek_, she cried inwardly: _it should be here! _Did she mess up her landmarks? Impossible.

She presses into the dirt with her heel, and a burst of wind carries away the overturned puff of dirt. This was it the. They were going to die either from those carnivorous monsters, or dehydration, if Roy doesn't die from blood-loss first.

Right as her thoughts flickers to Roy, she hears a shot: a bellowing and anguished cry that echoes from the cracking creek-bed into her skeleton.

"Roy!" she yells back, momentarily forgetting the need to be quiet. "Roy, I'm coming!"

Her heart leaps with her as she careens through the forest, hand and bow slapping away sharp branches and biting leaves. Her legs feel languid and heavy, like she's racing through a mind-reeling catatonic state.

She smells them before she breaks through the trees—the nauseating odor of decaying meat. She pushes herself faster, and, with one last whack of her bow through the foliage, bursts into the plain.

There are two of them. She shoots the first one closest to her, and it comes tumbling down in an avalanche of rocks. Dodging away from the debris, she aims another arrow at the second one. With dismay, she sees the source of Roy's screams of pain. The creature had followed him up to the zenith of the hill, and had latched its rows of teeth to his injured leg. Blood colors its sharp canines with incarnadine, sapping the remainder of Roy's color from his cheeks. Beside him lays the remains of his bow, broken and bent in twists of fiberglass and carbon.

Artemis staggers up the hill, desperately searching for an open shot.

"Just shoot the damn thing!" Roy yells.

The creature's eyes narrow. It begins to twist its massive head to one side, ready to shake and sever Roy's leg from the rest of his body. But it never finishes the act. Artemis's arrow hits with deadly accuracy, and the glare dims into blackness. Roy tugs his limp leg from its jaws, and collapses backwards.

Artemis reaches him, and takes in the bad shape of his leg—or what's left of it. But before she could drop to her knees and hold Roy's head away from the ground, a series of roars trembles through the air. She whips around, and is mortified to see a ring of six monsters appear from the shadows below them.

_No… _

She grabs her last arrow, and aims it at the creatures, switching focus from one to another. But how could she ever take down a pack of these hunters with a single arrow?

She feels a soft grip on her ankle, and looks down into a pair of cloudy blue eyes. Her heart immediately shreds to pieces at the sight of Roy, and she's not prepared for what he says next.

"Artemis," he gasps, "you're going to have to kill me. It's the only way-" a crippling spasm of pain causes him to pause, but he quickly continues, "-only way... you'll survive."

* * *

**A/N:** My apologies for taking so long to update. The next and last chapter will be short, so it will hopefully be updated faster. Like, way faster, as in by the time you're reading this, I'm probably halfway done with the next chapter haha.


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice_

* * *

_**Survival**__  
Chapter VI_

* * *

Artemis becomes speechless. The growls of the beasts encircling them are quickly drowned out by the thudding of her heartbeats. She refuses to believe the words that had just dragged themselves out of Roy's colorless and cracked lips.

"What?" is the only word she can utter. It comes out as a hiss of disbelief.

Roy turns and coughs, and spits out of a clot of blood. He faces her again and explains as fast and sure as he can.

"When and where the wall breaks has not been mere coincidences," he says, his voice straining barely above a hoarse whisper. "The first line crumbled away after Robin died. The area about an arrow started to give way after I injured my foot, and is now disappearing with the more blood I lose."

Artemis remains unconvinced.

"What about the part with the goddess?" As soon as the question is in the air, she knows his response. He was always so logical, and now she hates him for it.

Roy shakes his head and winces. He coughs again and more blood splatters the rocks to his side.

"You don't need that part to break away. The hole will be big enough already."

Artemis still wants to argue; to distract him away from the nonsense of her…committing _murder_. What about the rest of the poem? Her eyes dart down to the stone wall—which now holds a small breach into a dark void—and then travel across the snarling and drooling monsters slowly advancing towards them. That's when she realizes there _is_ no more to the poem.

The engraving isn't a riddle; it's a gravestone marking.

A gravestone marking for two of them so the third may live.

"I'm _not_ going to kill you!" she professes, twisting back and dropping to Roy's side. A surge of resolve fills her until her eyes flash black.

Roy closes his eyes, trying to block out of the crescendo of claws against gravel. He calculates the pack is only sixty seconds away from reaching them.

"I'm dying anyway," he mutters.

Artemis pushes away the caustic sting behind her eyes and her knuckles turn white.

_Forty seconds._

Roy's eyes fly open and he suddenly grabs Artemis's last arrow from her quiver and shoves it into her hand.

"Do it, Artemis. At least do it so I don't to die like Robin," he pleads, his sad eyes snaring around her heart.

The biting behind her eyes finally gives way, and Artemis finds herself choking back tears.

"You're _not_ dying!" she practically yells.

_Thirty seconds._

Roy inhales sharply and reaches to turn her bow towards him.

"Make it count…" he whispers.

_Make it count… make it count… _

A deluge of memories inundate Artemis's mind: Roy's teasing, his fire lighting her eyes and voice, missions where they would spend whole minutes glaring silently at each other… and his gentle tending of the wound on her palm, the warmth and strength of his arms wrapped around her, the smell of cinnamon—always the smell of cinnamon…

_Fifteen seconds._

She stands up, notches the arrow, and aims it at Roy. His eyes soften into longing, and the corner of his lips turn slightly upwards.

Artemis inhales sharply and holds her breath. She pulls back the arrow and feels her compound bow take the force from her arms as she reaches the end of the draw length. Her eyes travel across Roy's body—from the dirt streaks on his gray cheeks, to his mud-covered and torn jacket, and finally on the glistening red mass of his injured leg. She couldn't lose this; she couldn't lose _him_. Not when she finally…

_Ten seconds._

Roy nods at her, and exhales slowly.

But then with a quick twist, Artemis fires her last arrow at the nearest beast and flings herself on top of Roy. She grabs the back of his head and kisses him.

"I'm making it count," she murmurs into his lips.

And then she feels something yank her backwards into blackness, and the last word she cries out is his name.

* * *

Artemis wakes up on a stiff bed, and with a jolt, finds herself staring at Batman, and—

"Robin!" she gasps, sitting up. "You're…you're alive!"

Her exclamation is met with a lopsided smirk.

"I was never dead," Robin replies with a knowing shrug.

Artemis frowns, and looks around her. She's back in the Cave. She's back home. And she's alive.

"What-?" she begins, and is interrupted by Batman.

"Training exercise for survival skills," he explains flatly, "as well as teamwork and mental capabilities. We temporarily erased your most recent memories to make the exercise more effective."

Artemis narrows her eyes and looks down, slowly and finally recalling how Batman had noticed the animosity between her and Roy, and had wanted—

Her head jolts up.

"Where's Roy?!" she frantically yells.

Robin's eyebrows twitch in surprise and he gestures to the door.

"In the other room," he says, "down the—"

Artemis lunges from the bed and runs past him before he can finish, yanking the door open and running down the hall to the only other room.

She finds him sitting at the edge of his bed, holding his head in his hands while Martian Manhunter stands quietly next to him. At the sound of Artemis's entrance, Roy looks up but is immediately knocked backwards into his sheets as she leaps at him.

"Artemis! What are you—"

His question is interrupted by the crash of her lips against his, and then they're both lost in a daze of passion. Martian Manhunter suppresses a grin, and silently leaves the two to their business.

When they finally pull apart, Roy smiles up at her and smoothes back her hair.

"Why didn't you shoot me?" he asks.

Artemis returns the smile and tilts her head towards the palm of his hand.

"Because," she answers, "_living_ is different than just surviving."

Roy chuckles and pulls her closer.

"I still think the goddess _did_ shoot an arrow so swift," he whispers in her ear, "—straight through the heart."

Artemis bats him away and laughs at his nauseatingly cheesy remark.

"So what kind of strange effect _do_ I have on you?" she asks.

"I don't know, but I _do_ know I _don't_ want to run away." He kissed her on the nose. "Not now." And then kissed her on the lips. "Not ever."

* * *

_**The End**_

* * *

**A/N:** ….Trololol?

Thanks for coming along on this journey with me! I hope you enjoyed reading this story, because I definitely had the time of life writing it. Thank you all for the support and reviews!


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